In Yule Island, and in the vicinity of Hall Sound, and right away down
the coast of New Guinea as far as Cloudy Bay, we come across a fairly
uniform and rather uninteresting type of decorative art.
The designs are burnt into bamboo tobacco-pipes or gourds, “with a
glowing slice of the sheathing leaf of the coco-nut kept almost at a
white heat by the native artist blowing upon it. The end of the glowing
ember forms a fine point, which on being slowly moved along the desired
lines leaves indelible tracks.” (Lindt, _Picturesque New Guinea_, 1888,
p. 34.) In Cloudy Bay the natives scratch the design on the rind of the
bamboo before charring it; this tends to limit the burning, and to give
a hard edge to the lines. Here also the designs run along the length
of the pipes in distinct bands; in other parts of the Central District
longitudinal bands are broken by encircling bands, and are often
replaced by panels.
The employment of isolated, rectangular panels is very characteristic
of this district. On such objects as tobacco-pipes the panels must
from necessity follow one another more or less serially, but they need
not be co-ordinated into a definite pattern. When larger surfaces are
ornamented, as, for example, the bodies of women (Fig. 20, A, B),
the panels may also be somewhat irregularly disposed; but there is a
tendency, at all events in some places (as in the figure), for the
designs to have an orderly and symmetrical arrangement, but in no case
is there absolute symmetry.
[Illustration: FIG. 20, A.—Drawing of Tabuta, a Motu girl, by Rev. W.
Y. Turner, M.D. (from _Journ. Anth. Inst._, vii., 1878, Fig. 4, p. 480).
B.—Back view of the same. (The hair of this girl is incorrectly drawn,
it should be frizzly and not wavy.)]
A common form of panel is the Maltese cross (Fig. 21, H, I); perhaps
it would be more accurate to describe it as a light St. Andrew’s cross
on a dark rectangular panel. A combination of light St. George’s and
St. Andrew’s crosses on dark fields is very frequent; the arms of the
latter cross often become leaf-like, and may monopolise the field.
(Fig. 21, E, F.) Some travellers have suggested that these designs are
derived from the Union Jack, but this is not the case. Another kind of
panel is that shown in Fig. 21, G. Fig. 21, D, illustrates one form of
a common type of band pattern.
[Illustration: FIG. 21.—A. Design on a lime-gourd from Kerepunu; B.
Part of the decoration of a pipe from Maiva; C. Detail on a pipe from
Kupele, in the Berlin Museum; D-I. Designs on pipes—G from Kupele
(Berlin), H, I, from Koiari (Berlin). All the Figs. are to different
scales.]
One of the most widespread of the isolated designs is that shown in
Fig. 21, A, B, and Fig. 22, but it is subject to many variations.
Similar designs are tattooed on people below the armpit or on the
shoulder. Now that attention has been called to this and other designs,
we shall probably learn what significance is attached to them.
Occasionally we find what appear to be undoubted plant motives on
pipes and other objects from this district, as, for example, on a pipe
from Kupele in the Berlin Museum (Fig. 21, C), and it is probable that
the designs just alluded to are also plant derivatives.
[Illustration: FIG. 22. Part of the decoration of a pipe in the
Cambridge Museum; one-sixth natural size.]
Throughout this district, especially along the coast, the women are
tattooed, and in some localities they are entirely covered with tattoo
marks. The men are much less tattooed than the women.[8] The designs
employed are for the most part the same as those used to decorate pipes
and gourds. The angled design tattooed on the chests of women (Fig. 20,
A, B) is found on a pipe in the Cambridge Museum. (Fig. 22.)
[8] According to Mr. A. C. English, Government Agent for the
Rigo District, among the Sinaugolo tribe, the design Fig. 21,
D, is called _mulavapuli_, and is tattooed on both sexes as
a distinction for taking life; Fig. 21, H, I, _biubiu_, have
a similar value; the angled chest-marks (Fig. 20, A, B) are
called _boaroko_. (_Ann. Rep. British New Guinea_, 1893-94, pp.
68, 69.)
Noticeable features in the decorative art of this district are the
preponderance of straight lines over curved lines; as well as the
occurrence of dotted lines and of very short lines, which form a kind
of fringe to many of the lines. (Figs. 21, 22, 51.)
Very remarkable also is the absence of the delineation of the human or
of animal forms. Bounded on the north-west by a luxuriant art based on
human faces and forms, and limited to the south-east by bird-scrolls
and bird and crocodile derivatives, not to mention human effigies and
representations of various animals, these central folk are unaffected
by these two very distinct forms of artistic activity. The only
exceptions, so far as my evidence goes, is in the transitional country
north of Hall Sound, and a few carvings of crocodiles in certain tabu
houses or _dubus_.
The rigid conservatism of the native mind is the sheet-anchor of the
ethnographer; no better example of this mental rigidity is needed
than is supplied by the Motu people who live in the vicinity of Port
Moresby. The women make large quantities of pottery, which the men
trade for sago up the Papuan Gulf even to a distance of two hundred
miles. Three or more canoes lashed together and fitted with crates
constitute a trading canoe or _lakatoi_. A fleet of twenty _lakatoi_
carrying about six hundred men, each of whom would take about fifty
pots, has been known to sail from Port Moresby. The 20,000 or 30,000
exported pots will bring in exchange a cargo of 150 tons, or more, of
sago. Notwithstanding this great annual trading, the decorative art of
the Motu is absolutely untouched by that of the Gulf natives, or _vice
versâ_; the artistic motives, scheme of decoration, and technique are
entirely different.
It seems probable that many of the decorated objects that are labelled
in European museums as coming from this district are the work of the
hill tribes, or of that coast population which does not belong solely
to the Motu and allied tribes.